


Halloween Drabbles

by AJsRandom



Category: Merlin (TV)
Genre: Drabble Collection, F/M, Fluff and Humor, Halloween, Spooky
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 18:29:47
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 2,674
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12538424
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AJsRandom/pseuds/AJsRandom
Summary: Halloween-themed drabbles I wrote for Merlin Writers' FIc-Tac-Toe 2017.





	1. Party

“I don’t know why we have to go to this party anyway,” Arthur complained. “He has it every year. Heck, he probably wouldn’t even notice if we skipped it this time.”

“Oh come on,” Gwen replied. “You always hate going but once you’re there, you love it. Halloween _is_ your favorite holiday.”

“You’re probably right. But I don’t have anything ready.”

“Not to worry.” Gwen held up a Batman costume, which Arthur just knew would be his size. “I’ve got you covered. Literally.” She giggled.

“Thanks.” Arthur grabbed the costume and went into their bedroom to change. When he came out, he saw Gwen decked out in a Wonder Woman costume. “Wow, hon, you look great.”

“Thank you,” she flounced her curly hair, “so do you.”

“Shall we?” he pointed to the door.

“Off to Merlin’s party, we go, high ho.”


	2. Candy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin and Morgana get ready for trick-or-treaters.

“Is it time yet?” Merlin asked Morgana.

Morgana glanced at the clock. “Almost. You’d better get the bags of candy out.”

“Bags of candy, check.” He held the bags up for her to see.

“Now I’ll get out the pumpkin bowl. Where did we store that thing after last year?”

“In the cupboard above the refrigerator.”

“Oh yes. But you’d better get it out, Mister taller-than-me.”

Merlin reached over the fridge to the cupboard, rummaged around in it for a few seconds then pulled out the bowl. “Ah ha!”

“All right. Candy into the bowl.” They both heard excited voices outside. “Hurry it up!”

“I’m hurrying!”

Their doorbell rang. They both ran over to the door. Morgana paused before opening the door. “Where’s the bowl?”

“Argh. Stupid me!” Merlin ran back to the table, grabbed the bowl, and ran back to the door. “Okay, here it is.”

“Perfect.” She grabbed the bowl and whipped open the door.

“Trick or treat!’ several little voices proclaimed.

Morgana handed them one candy bar each. “Here you go. Have a scary night!” She closed the door. “All right, do you think you can handle it this year?”

“I’m sure I can.”

“Just one each, all right?”

Merlin frowned. “I know. I’m not a child, you know.”

She bopped his nose. “You could have fooled me.”


	3. Jack O'Lantern

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin and Morgana invite Gwen and Arthur over to carve pumpkins.

“Isn’t this a great idea?” Gwen asked as they drove to Merlin and Morgana’s house.

“I don’t know,” Arthur replied, “I hate the slimy pumpkin guts.”

“But you love munching on the seeds, and you get those by emptying the pumpkin.”

“I know, I know.”

“Besides, you love the look of the Jack O’ Lanterns at night. I’ll do all the carving, if you like. You got to pick out the designs.”

“Yeah, I can handle a knife.”

“It’s all right if you don’t want to.” Gwen patted his leg. “I know you didn’t have many opportunities growing up.”

“Try no opportunities. Dad had them all done for us professionally.”

Just then, they pulled up to their house. Merlin threw the front door open before Arthur had opened Gwen’s car door. “Yay, you made it! We’ve got everything you might need inside, plus hot apple cider mulling. Come on in.”

“Geeze, Merlin, overenthusiastic much?” Arthur snarked, but helped Gwen pick up the pumpkins from the back seat and carry them inside.

Morgana sat at the dining table in front of an impressive array of knives. “Hello, dear brother. And Gwen—always good to see you.” She rushed over to hug Gwen.

“Don’t I get a hug too?”

“I’ll hug you, Arthur,” Merlin said, coming up behind him.

“That’s okay. Let’s get the fun started, shall we?”

With that, all four sat down at the covered table. Gwen and Merlin pulled pumpkins in front of them, checked their designs then started cutting into the pumpkins. Soon they had them open and were scraping out the seeds and stringy bits. Arthur made a face at Morgana, who winked back at him. He frowned, but turned back to Gwen, who was just scooping the last bits out.

“You’re fast,” he said.

“I know.” She giggled.

She turned back to her pumpkin. With the “guts” now out, she could get started on the carving. She picked up a knife and began working. Across the table, Merlin was still scooping. Morgana smirked at Arthur, so Arthur stuck his tongue out at her.

“Would you cut that out?” Merlin said.

“You could see that?” Arthur replied.

“I have eyes, don’t I?”

Arthur sighed and went back to watching Gwen. She was making progress on the eyes. It looked like this would be the scary one when she finished. He’d picked a cute design and a scary one.

Before too long, Arthur got up and poured himself a mug of cider then got one for Morgana too. He placed it beside her and she murmured “thanks.” He took a minute and glanced at Merlin’s emerging jack o’ lantern. It looked like he’d picked a cute design for this one. By the time Arthur made it back to Gwen, she was carving the mouth.

“That’s quite frightening,” he commented.

“I know.” She gave him a wicked grin. “You picked a good one.”

When she finished, she wiped the jack o’ lantern down with a clean cloth and turned it to face Arthur. “Ooh,” he said.

“Thank you.” She turned it to face Merlin and Morgana.

“Yikes,” Merlin said.

“Gwen, you’re a true artist,” Morgana said.


	4. Caramel Apples

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin teaches Morgana how to make caramel apples.

“I want to teach you this fall family tradition we had,” Merlin told Morgana.

“And what is that?” she replied.

“Oh you’ll love it. Caramel apples.”

“You’ve got my attention.”

“I thought you’d say that.” He gestured to the table where he had a couple of bags of caramels and a bowl of apples.

“What are those?” She asked, pointing to a bag a white sticks.

“Sticks, so you can hold them. You take out the stems and put the sticks in the apples.”

“Oh, yeah. Right.”

Merlin shook his head. “Boy, you really were a deprived child, weren’t you?”

“Father wouldn’t let us eat such things. Said they were bad for our teeth.”

“Well, they aren’t the most wholesome treats, that’s for sure, but they are still apples.”

“Okay, can we make them now?”

“Impatient! But yes. First we need to lay out some wax paper so they have something to cool on.”

Morgana moved to the drawer where they kept it. “All right,” she said, taking it out. “What now?”

“Lay a couple long sheets on the table while I start melting the caramels.” He scooped up the bags from the table and dumped them into a waiting saucepan. Then he added a little milk and began stirring. “Okay, now take all the stems out of the apples and put in the sticks.”

“Like this?” Morgana asked, removing a stem and jamming the stick in.

“Perfect.”

“Can you come help? There’s an awful lot of apples here.”

“I need to keep stirring this or it’ll burn. And we don’t want that. Or you can come stir while I do that.”

“I think I’d rather stir.”

They quickly traded places. While Morgana stirred and Merlin took care of the apples, they talked a bit more about Merlin’s family traditions and how they were different from Morgana’s. Soon the caramels were all melted. “It’s time,” Merlin told her, and they brought the pot over to the table.

“You dip the apple in like this, and kind of roll it around until it’s all covered. Then set it on the wax paper.” He demonstrated for her.

She picked up one of the apples and dunked it into the caramel mixture, rolling it around a bit. Then she pulled it out and held it up. “Like this?”

“Perfect! You’re a natural at this. Keep going.” He handed her another apple.

They dipped until all the apples were finished. After waiting about fifteen minutes for them to cool, they each picked one up to try. “Mmm,” Morgana said as she bit into hers, “This is a tradition I think we can keep on doing forever.”


	5. Scary

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Gwen visit a haunted house.

“Are you sure you want to do this, Gwen?” Arthur asked her as they walked up to the haunted house.

“I keep telling you, Arthur, that it’s not really a haunted house. There are just people inside making it seem haunted. It’s supposed to be scary but fun.” She stopped. “Wait a minute. You’re not scared, are you?”

“No! I mean, no, of course not.”

“You never went to one of these when you were younger, did you?”

Arthur sighed. “No, we weren’t allowed.”

Gwen grinned. “Well, we’re going to fix that. Come on.” She pulled on his hand to lead him to the door, where they paid their fee.

Arthur held tight to Gwen’s hand as they passed from room to room. Some of them weren’t so bad, but most were horrible scenes from slasher movies. Gwen just laughed when someone in a hockey mask started up a chainsaw. Arthur jumped about a foot in the air. He thought he wouldn’t ever feel the same way about chainsaws again.

By the time they exited, Arthur’s nerves were at an all-time high. He knew for sure he never wanted to come to another one of these haunted houses. Ever. Gwen took one look at his face and squeezed his hand.

“Pretty scary for you, huh?”

“Yeah.” He shuddered. “Can we not do that again?”

She giggled. “All right. From now on we’ll stick to the kiddie ones.”


	6. Decorate

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin and Morgana discuss decorating for Halloween.

“Okay, so how are we going to decorate for Halloween this year?” Merlin asked Morgana.

“Well, we’ll have at least three jack o’ lanterns,” she replied.

“Of course. And also the giant spider to hang out on the tree with the fake spiderwebs.”

“Ooh, yes. Let’s get a fake skeleton to put outside the door.”

“That’s perfect.” Merlin thought for a moment. “Do we need more outside?”

“A Halloween wreath? I can always use an excuse to go to the craft store.”

“That’s brilliant. And for inside, we have our witchy door cover, right?”

“Yeah, along with the various little pumpkins I picked up last week.”

“I love those little pumpkins. They’re so cute!”

Morgana giggled. “I know, right?”

“Do we have anything else?”

“Not that I can remember, but there’s always the craft store . . .”

“Can I come along?”

“Of course! Let’s go!”


	7. Costume

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Gwen go shopping for costumes.

Arthur’s eyes widened in amazement as he and Gwen stepped through the doors of the party shop. He’d never seen so many Halloween-y things in one place before. And one entire wall of the store was given over to costumes. However would he pick the right one?

Gwen grabbed his arm and pulled him forward. “We’ll never get started if we don’t look.”

“Did I say that out loud?”

“You sure did.” She grinned and led him to the wall of costumes. “Most of these are for kids. It’s only this section here that’s for adults.” She led him over to the smaller section.

“Oh that’s a relief.”

“I could see your eyes glazing over.”

“Hey.” He surveyed the adult costumes. “So it’s down to these then. Let’s see, I was Batman last year, so maybe Superman?”

“That works for me.” She pointed to a sexy Catwoman costume. “I was thinking of going with this one.”

“Yowza.”

They asked an attendant to get their sizes so they could try them on. Once they did so, Arthur was even more impressed by Gwen’s choice. “That definitely works on you.”

“Thanks. Yours looks good as well.”

“Great, now can we get out of here?”

“What’s the matter? Are you on Halloween overload?”

“Something like that.”

They changed and headed to the front with their costumes. After they paid and walked out, Gwen took his hand. “Thanks for humoring me.”

“Of course. It’s the least I could so for my sexy Catwoman.”


	8. Trick-or-Treat

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Merlin and Morgana deal with their trick-or-treaters.

Their doorbell rang. Morgana stood off to the side of the door while Merlin opened the door, candy bowl in hand. “Trick-or-treat!” several little voices said. Merlin smiled and put a piece of candy in every container. “Thank you!” all the little voices crowed, as they turned and ran down the sidewalk to their parents.

Merlin closed the door and looked at Morgana. “See, I totally handled that. You don’t have to watch me, you know.”

“Oh, but it’s fun. Besides, you’re holding the candy and I want some.”

Merlin whisked the bowl away from her outstretched hand. “Morgana, I’m shocked. This is for the kids.”

She just laughed. “Good. I’ll just got get some from our extra bag.”

“Morgana.” Merlin shook his head. “While you’re at it, you might want to find something else to do, like adopt a black cat or cook up some mysterious potion on the stove. I don’t need supervising.”

“That’s a good idea, Merlin.”

“Which one? The cat or the potion?”

“The potion. I think I’ll make a batch of mulled cider.”

“Mmm, that sounds good.”

He had to turn back to the door just then, because the doorbell had rung again. But the couple did enjoy the mulled cider on and off all evening.

And the lone black cat at the shelter did get adopted that night.


	9. Beware!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Arthur and Gwen visit Merlin and Morgana, only to be surprised.

Arthur and Gwen were again driving to Merlin and Morgana’s house. “Why are we always going to their house? They never come to ours.”

Gwen shook her head. “That’s not true. They come over every Christmas. And for our birthdays. And for the odd office party you throw.”

“Huh, I guess so.”

They pulled up to the house and noticed a new sign hanging on the gate. It said “Beware!” Both looked at the other and Gwen said, “’Beware’? Why would we need to do that? Do you have any idea?”

Arthur shook his head. “No idea. Maybe it’s a Halloween decoration?”

“Maybe.”

They carefully opened and shut the gate then walked up to the door. Arthur pressed the doorbell and Merlin appeared through a crack. “Quick, get inside. We don’t want her to get out.”

He opened the door wider and the two quickly moved inside. Merlin slammed the door behind them.

“Merlin, what’s going on?” Arthur asked. “And what’s with the ‘beware’ sign?”

Merlin rolled his eyes. “I got it as a joke. Morgana adopted this black cat last night and I thought it would be fun to put up the sign. But it turned out to be reality. The cat is a terror!”

Just then, Morgana entered the room. She was holding a black kitten in her arms. “There there pretty kitty, mama will get you what you need.” She looked up. “Oh hello, guys. Want to meet the newest member of our family?”

Arthur and Gwen looked at each other. “Um, sure,” Gwen replied.

They walked over to Morgana, Gwen reaching out a hand to pet the kitten. It looked up at her and mewed, then began purring. “Aww,” Gwen said, reaching out to take the kitten from Morgana.

Once it was snuggled in Gwen’s arms, she turned to Arthur. “Your turn to pet him—her?”

“Her name is Sassy,” Morgana offered.

“Sassy. I like it. Okay Arthur, I know you’re not really a cat person, but she’s really adorable.”

“Okay.” Arthur reached out his hand, but the kitten hissed and took a swipe at his hand, claws out. “Well, all right then. I guess it doesn’t like me.”

“See what I mean?” said Merlin from behind them.

Sassy’s ears perked up at the sound of Merlin’s voice. She wiggled out of Gwen’s arms and jumped to the floor. Then she ran over to Merlin, and with an angry growl, jumped up Merlin’s leg. “Ow!” he complained, as tiny claws sunk into his leg. He shook the offended leg, trying to get Sassy off, but the kitten wouldn’t be dislodged. “Help,” he said to Morgana, who just laughed. “Please, ‘Gana? This hurts like you wouldn’t believe.”

“Oh all right,” Morgana conceded. She walked over to Merlin and gently pulled Sassy off of Merlin. The kitten instantly went back to cuddling and purring in Morgana’s arms.

“You’re right, Merlin,” Arthur said. “You definitely need that ‘beware’ sign.”


End file.
